nightMair Media Mgmt

Social Media done well – Westjet beats the Press

Massive amounts of snow fall in the Okanagan, BC the last few days have wreaked havoc – and today’s incident could have been a PR nightmare but Westjet (who are a progressive, forward thinking company to begin with), took the bull by the horns and basically beat the Press to the punch.

At approximately 7:58 am today, WestJet flight 150 was departing the main apron at gate 7 in Kelowna, bound for Edmonton, when the nose wheel and the two main gear wheels on the right side of the aircraft slid off the apron. There were no injuries and guests were offloaded and taken back to the airport terminal to be reaccommodated on other flights and/or in hotels for the night.

The aircraft involved is a Boeing 737-700 Next Generation series, and there were 134 guests plus six crew members on board. The aircraft will undergo a maintenance check to determine if any damage occurred.

Over the last couple of hours, Kelowna airport has had short intermittent closures of the runway due to heavy snowfall and limited visibility, and the airport is experiencing some delayed and cancelled flights. Due to the snowstorm, four other WestJet flights to/from Kelowna have been cancelled. Guests flying to/from Kelowna today are asked to check the status of their flights prior to coming to the airport.

Everyone on the flight was fine, one fellow interviewed for the TV news said they spent an our on the runway being de-iced and he fell asleep, woke up and thought they’d already landed in Edmonton! By the time this story hit the news (including social) it was already ‘old news’ and no news at all. The only news here? How well they handled a situation by being on top of their brand and caring for their customers. Well done WestJet.